Brother of woman stabbed, run over charges at defendant during preliminary hearing

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) -- A Philadelphia man accused of stabbing and running over his ex-girlfriend has been ordered to stand trial on first-degree murder and other charges in Montgomery County.

Emotions ran high Tuesday at the preliminary hearing for 33-year-old Lawrence Crawley as a family member tried to attack him.

Thirty-three-year-old Angela Stith was leaving her job at Vector Security around 2 a.m. on August 3. She was attacked in the parking lot, stabbed, and then run over repeatedly, prosecutors say, by Crawley. A video of the attack was played at his preliminary hearing.

“She was stabbed multiple times, a knife was broken off in her back," said Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, "but then to have the defendant run over her multiple times in a multi-ton truck is difficult for anyone to see.”

The 9-1-1 call from a co-worker trying to help Stith was synced with the video, the caller shrieking into the phone, “We can’t even get to her, he keeps running her over.”

“The difficulty not just for what the poor victim went through in this case, but the people who observed what was going on and were trying to come to her aid, is difficult to imagine," Steele said.

Before the hearing even got underway, as family filed into the courtroom, Stith’s brother charged at Crawley. He was stopped by police in the room and led from the courtroom and the hearing continued.

Crawley suffered severe burns as his car burst into flames after he crashed trying to flee police in August. Those scars were on display as he sat emotionless, watching the video, at times glancing back at Stith’s family as they choked back sobs.